The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-11
THE AUGUST MErEoRs.
Prof Richard A. Proctor on the Starry clears
of st. Lawrence"

Prof Richard A. Proctor the Starry clears
of St Lawrence"
New York World.
On the nights of Aug. 10 and il observers of
the star depths may look with confidence for the
meteors called in the middle ages ''The Tears of
St. Lawrence" but no. less POLITICALLY named the
Perseids. These same August meteors may,
however, be looked for all through the coming
week, the system being a widespread one,
through which earth despite her swift
ton of 68. 600 miles an hour, takes several days
in passing.
There is 20 my mind something sineularly in
teresting in the study of falling stars now that
their real nature begins to be known 1t
impressive enough to recognize, as Humboldt
brought men to do half a century ago, the ar
rival of bodies which had for millions of years
been outside the earth, when we saw rushing
athwart the star depths the falling stars belong
ing to "A system like the August stream of the
November meteors called the Leonids. But in
Humboldts time the August and November me-
teors were supposed to travel around the sun in
an orbit no wider than the earth's, and probably
not so wide. Now, when we look at of the
August meteors we know that are contem-
has been travelling for millions of years on
orbit far wider in range than even the i'm
mense orbit of Neptune. Ut will be observed
that say range" not 'span;" Neptune has far
the wider orbit, but his path is nearly circular,
and his greatest little exceeds his mean dstance
the path followed by the August stream is high
~ eccentric. insomuch that they pass much fur
Their from the than the distance OF
their track Half a century ago each one of
the bodies which will be the nights of
Wednesday and Thursday next, and recognized
az belonging to the family of August meteors,
was far out in space-beyond the remotest depths
which the astronomer has yet traced solar
system. Besides the travellers caught by the
earth during the coming week, and brought to
brilliant end-as in their swift plunge into our
air they raised to incandescence by intense
heat, then vaporized and dispersed-there are
millions of others which will pass during
the next half century to the same remote depths
of inter planetary space.
AS meteors are always falling. and many be-
sides the August moteors will be seen next
Wednesday and Thursday, it may be interesting
to those who care to watch for falling stars to
learn how they may identify meteors OF the
Perseid family The name of itself shows how
the meteors may be identified. They all follow
tracks which seem to radiate from the con-
stellation Perseus. The track of August
meteor NAV, indeed be far removed, along it's
whole length. from that well-known constella-
ton. But if the observed course of such meteor
is traced back ward far enough either in mag
Inaton in the star depths, a map globe,
it will be found to pass through Perseus IT the
path of meteor so prolong beyond its OBJ
served range, should pass through Perseus. then
the observer may be full sure that whatever svs-
tenn that meteor belongs to, it is not of St.
Lawrences Tears or, in the drier style of the
astronomer, It is not a Perseid.
The astronomical observer will ask Just
here how he is to find Perseus in the sky. For
tunately. it is easy direct him, without
naming the dipper. the pole star and other
groups stars which every is supposed
to know, but OF which many are profoundly ig-
norant At about in the evening. throughout
the coming week. Perseus is rising above the
horizon mid way between north and northeast
Recognized in that direction at 9, any time
between and 10, the constellation can be fol-
lowed ell through the night, if the observer is
Jealous enough. 1t forms what LOOKS like
festoon of stars of different brightness, from the
second (only one of these) to the fifth; and is
worth knowing for its own sake. But if the
8 and IL, he will have no
trouble in recognizing August meteors
even without first finding Perseus- For where
ever August meteor appears during those
hours its course will be directed from the north
northeast horizon at g. from a point in the
northeast several degrees above the horizon at
between and H. So that at the beginning OF
this interval all August meteors will have tracks
tending towards the south southwest horizon;
at the end their tracks will tend towards a point
in the southwest somewhat below the horizon,
and between these times their tracks will tend
towards some part of the horizon between south
southwest and southwest, this part passing all
the time gradually lower.
But after all, it is easy to recognize Per-
seus low down in the north-northeast at about
$50 that it is just well for the observer to
the constellation itself as the point from which
all the true Perseids seem to tend, aud point
opposite Perseus that towards which they
tend. So shall he not fall into the mistake of
other meteors, strangers TO this sys-
meteors, some astronomers de-
light to call themSas belonging to this most
ancient and respectable family.
Considerable interest attaches to the obs eva
tion of Perseids before and after Aug. 10 and IL.
For such observations indicate the extent of the
stream. Our earth travels. in round UNI
bers, 500. 900 miles in day, so that in a week,
the time which August meteors have cen
recognized, the earth has
traversed a distance of more than
ii. OOO 600 of miles. That is a tolera bly,
wide span for stream of meteoric
bodies. Yet probably it is little compared with
earth's track And certainly the spread of the
meteor system in either direction is the merest
nothing compared with the systems range in
a range amounting to the whole circuit
Of an oval path more than FIVE thousand millions
Of miles in its greatest length. Thus. if the
August meteors were individually small, some
Of them little more than grains of cosmical dust
hey occupy region of space compared with
which the globe of the earth is but point, and
even the immense globe of the sun SINKS into
after insignlfcance. This magnlfcence of
n the meteor system than the amazing
dimensions of the tails of some of
The tail OF the great comet Of 1911 was hundred
Millions of miles long and had an average |
breadth of fully ten millions of miles, sienifying
volume of nearly eight thousand millions of |
Millions of millions of cubic miles, whereas our
suns diameter is but $50, 900 miles, and his vol |
lme mere trifle of some three hundred and sixty
thousand millions of millions of cubic miles. But |
houeh 5000, 900 certainly exceed $780, 600 |
Enormously, the whole of that immense comet |
lad no more real might, which is the main char |
lcteristic of the sun, than the least OF those |
mall asteroids, which by courtesy called |
,,anets, but combined In their thousands would |
lot make tenth of our earth's mass.
Meteors and comets, however, though unim-
'ortant componets of the wealth of matter oc-
upying the celestial spaces, full of interest,
IS associatlng together by their mvri ads of in
erlacing streams the planets of our solar sys-
en- as telling US of other sets of meteor streams
attending on other suns. and indicating
u some instances the existence of meteoric and
ometic systems which fit from sun to sun in
eriods to be measured by millions of years.
RICHARD A. PROCTOR.